Issue 237

12 06/07/2017 NEWS ART & CULTURE POLITICS RELIGION LITERATURE FASHION KIDS FILMS www.samajweekly.com
Chandigarh : It is known as
the world's largest community
kitchen -- feeding freshly
cooked food to an estimated
50,000 devotees on weekdays
and over 100,000 on weekends
and festivals. But the newlyintroduced
GST is going to put
an extra burden of over Rs 10
crore on this socio-religious
activity at the Golden Temple
complex in Amritsar and other
gurdwaras, temple officials say.
With purchases made for the
community kitchen coming
under various slabs of the new
GST, the Shiromani Gurdwara
Parbandhak Committee
(SGPC), the mini-parliament of
the Sikh religion that manages
Sikh shrines (gurdwaras) in
Punjab, Haryana and Himachal
Pradesh, including the
Harmandir Sahib (popularly
known as the Golden Temple),
is expecting an additional burden
of Rs 10 crore from this
year. Besides the Golden
Temple, the SGPC runs the langar
services in other famous
Sikh shrines like Takht
Charan Bunger MBE
It was a great pleasure for me when on Saturday 1 July, I was
installed as the Rotary District Governor for the 'Heart of England'
District 1060 with a huge responsibility to lead such a strong
District. I am proud to be a Rotarian, part of this prestigious worldwide
organisation of over 1.2 million members in over 36,000
Rotary clubs. Rotarians commit themselves to 'Service above Self'
and make a difference in the lives of people worldwide when carrying
out small to international service projects to help those in need.
GST shadow on world's
largest community kitchen
Keshgarh Sahib in Anandpur
Sahib (where the modern day
Khalsa Panth was established on
April 13, 1699, by Guru Gobind
Singh), Takht Damdama Sahib
at Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda
district and scores of other gurdwaras
under it. The "Langar
Sewa" (community kitchen) is a
socio-religious activity that is
Harsimrat Kaur Badal has
written to Finance Minister
Arun Jaitely to exempt all
purchases made by SGPC
for "langar sewa" from the
GST Act.
"The Punjab government
had earlier exempted all
items purchased for langar
by SGPC at Sri Darbar
kitchen, offering free meals
throughout the year to hundreds
of thousands of people.
(It is funded by) offerings
made by people," Badal pointed
out.
"The central government
should immediately withdraw
the GST on purchases made by
the SGPC and other religious
part of the Sikh religious ethos Sahib Amritsar, Sri
institutions that are doing
from the time of the first Sikh Keshgarh Sahib Anandpur
community service of this
Guru, Nanak Dev (1469-1539). and Talwandi Sabo Bathinda SGPC president Kirpal Singh magnitude," Prithipal Singh, a
The langar was started to from VAT. The SGPC spends Badungar has also sent a communication
to the GST Council, voluntary service at the Langar
devout Sikh who has been doing
emphasise equality in society around Rs 75 crore to purchase
regardless of religion, caste, desi ghee, sugar and pulses. which decides on the tax structure
and exemptions, to exempt plex in Amritsar for the past
Hall of the Golden Temple com-
colour and creed. With the new Now, it will have to bear a
GST slabs likely to hit the financial burden of Rs 10 crore the Sikh body from the GST nearly a decade, told IANS.
SGPC 's purchases with an additional
financial burden, Union under the 5 to 18 per cent GST "Sri Harmandir Sahib runs is provision for exemption to
on these purchases as they come slabs.
Under the new GST Act, there
Food Processing Minister bracket," Badal pointed out. the world's largest mega institutions/businesses on the
Double taxation on TN film industry
will affect lakhs: Rajinikanth
Chennai : Superstar Rajinikanth
on Wednesday said the Tamil Nadu
government's decision to levy 30
per cent entertainment tax over and
above the GST rate of 28 per cent
will affect the livelihood of
lakhs of people in the
Tamil film industry.
"Keeping in mind the
livelihood of lakhs
of people in the
Tamil film industry,
I sincerely
request the Tamil
Nadu government
to seriously consider
our plea,"
Rajinikanth tweeted.
The taxation rate left
the Tamil film industry in
a disarray, forcing the Tamil
Nadu Film Chamber of Commerce
to announce shutdown of theatres
on Monday and Tuesday. Theatres
across the state would continue to remain shut on
Wednesday for the third consecutive day. Members of
the industry have urged the K. Palaniswami government
to do away with the addition entertainment tax.
Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan on
Monday said "film making in the
state has been made difficult
deliberately". Reacting on the
taxation, Haasan said in a
statement: "There are further
tortures and systemic corruption
that the film industry
has to endure under this
regime."
He pointed out, apart
from Tamil Nadu, other
neighbouring southern states
have desisted from levying
additional tax on cinema over
and above the Goods and Services
Tax. "In Kerala, the film industry
requested CM Pinarayi Vijayan and he, through his
Finance Minister, quickly announced that Kerala will
not be levying anymore taxes on the already beleaguered
film business," he said. "Karnataka has gone
even further to facilitate the well-being of the film
industry. Telangana and Andhra are also doing their
best for their film industries," he added.
recommendation of the GST
Council. Hundreds of people
volunteer on a daily basis at the
Golden Temple complex and
other gurdwaras to prepare and
serve food and wash used utensils
at the langars. The volunteers
include scores of women
and children as well. People
partake langar while sitting on
the floor in the langar halls of
gurdwaras. The langar service
is funded from donations made
by people at gurdwaras. The
SGPC has an annual budget of
over Rs 1,100 crore to manage
the gurdwaras under it.
"Anyone coming to the langar
is offered food. No one is ever
turned back. It is part of the
Sikh ethos," volunteer
Gagandeep Singh pointed out.
Hundreds of tonnes of wheat
flour, desi ghee, pulses, vegetables,
milk, sugar and rice are
used, along with millions of
litres of water, annually at the
Golden Temple complex and
other gurdwaras to prepare langar.
The langar is completely
vegetarian.
Swami advocates balanced
relations with China, US
ROHTAK: Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian
Swamy on Sunday said India will have to
adopt a balanced approach to maintain ties
with both China and the United States. Swamy
was addressing the new recruits at the Indian
Institute of Management (IIM), Rohtak, at
their induction programme. He advocated a
tri-lateral relationship between India, China
and US. The topic of the session was
‘Importance of management perspective in
good governance’.
“China has serious apprehensions that India
might become a strong US ally in South Asia
and disturb regional balance. In this context,
India has to adopt a very balanced approach,”
he said. He urged the students to take interest
in entrepreneurship to facilitate job creation.
“Risks of entrepreneurship need to be balanced
with benefits arising from it,” he said.
The Rajya Sabha member also called for
ensuring equal opportunities to women. In a
lighter note, he said, “In Brahma’s cabinet, all
important portfolios were held by women —
defence was with Durga, finance with
Lakshmi and education with Saraswati; only
information and broadcasting was held by a
man – Narad Muni.” IIM director Prof Dheeraj
Sharma also spoke on the occasion.
New missile can carry nuclear warhead : Pyongyang
Pyongyang: The North
Korean regime said on
Wednesday that the new intercontinental
ballistic missile
(ICBM) it launched on Tuesday
can carry a large nuclear warhead,
state news agency KCNA
said. "The test-launch was aimed
to confirm the tactical and technological
specifications and
technological features of the
newly developed ICBM rocket
capable of carrying a large-sized
heavy nuclear warhead," Efe
news quoted a KCNA statement
as saying. The note said North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un
described the missile launched
on July 4 as "a package of
gifts...on its Independence Day"
for the Americans. Pyongyang
announced on Tuesday through
its state television that it had successfully
tested, for the first
time, an ICBM "capable of hitting
any target in the world".
KCNA said it was a new missile
named Hwasong-14, which
reached a maximum height of
2,802 km and travelled 933 km
in 39 minutes. This new test
marks a breakthrough in the Kim
Jong-un regime's weapons programs,
and once again has been
condemned by the international
community.
South Korea and the US, for
their part, also carried out their
own missile tests on Wednesday
as a response. The KCNA statement
said Wednesday that North
Korea's weapons test was used
to "verify all technical features
of the payload of the rocket during
its atmospheric re-entry
including the heat-resisting features
and structural safety of the
warhead tip of the ICBM made
of newly developed domestic
carbon compound material." It
also added that "the inner temperature
of the warhead tip was
maintained at 25 to 45 degrees
Celsius" at the time of re-entry
and that all other devices successfully
worked before the warhead
accurately hit the simulated
target.